ACIP: FluMist OK for children 2+; 6th seasonal flu vaccine approved

There's news from this week's meeting of the ACIP that the committee's influenza vaccine recommendation for children age 2-5 now includes FluMist. Here's a story from the Associated Press and another from the Wall Street Journal. This is hardly a surprise, in light of the decision by FDA to approve the vaccine for use in the 2-5 age group. (FluMist had previously been approved for 5-49 years olds only.)

In unrelated seasonal influenza vaccine news, we haven't yet noted the FDA approval late last month of Afluria, an injectable vaccine made by the Australian company CSL Biotherapies. The vaccine, licensed for use in adults 18 and older, is now the 6th different influenza vaccine available in the U.S. Here's coverage from CIDRAP News and Forbes.com and a media release from FDA.

From Pediatrics: GSK rotavirus trials; trial of school-based flu vaccine program

In a slow midsummer period for vaccine news, two papers appearing in the journal Pediatrics this month deserve mention:

• "Dose Response and Efficacy of a Live, Attenuated Human Rotavirus Vaccine in Mexican Infants" -- This is a report on a trial of GSK's rotavirus vaccine, Rotarix. The study of 405 infants showed the vaccine to be safe and effective. Rotarix is still awaiting U.S. licensure -- the application was filed late last month, according to this announcement -- but it is already available around the world (including the EU, as this 2006 press release announced). With Merck's rotavirus vaccine, RotaTeq, available in the U.S. since 2006, another Merck-GSK head-to-head showdown is bound to occur, albeit one certain to be far less noticeable than the imminent competition for the HPV vaccine market likely to begin in 2008.

• "Mass Distribution of Free, Intranasally Administered Influenza Vaccine in a Public School System" -- The paper reports on a school-based influenza vaccination program in the Knoxville, TN area. Roughly 24,000 of 53,000 students received the FluMist vaccine, an encouraging number according to the study's authors. Of concern, however, was the amount of resources (notably, 6900 person-hours of labor) needed to execute the program. The program described here was funded in part by MedImmune (since purchased by AstraZeneca), the manufacturer of FluMist. Nevertheless, the paper's authors are correct to note the value of trials such as this in evaluating the feasibility of school-based programs to increase pediatric vaccination rates or as part of pandemic response efforts.